Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/763931?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Journal of Musicology
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Charles-Hubert Gervais's
Psiche burlesque
and the Birth of the
reunit les qualites de tous les genres, le merveilleux de l' popee, les
passions favorites de la tragedie, I'enthousiasme de l'ode pindarique,
le gracieux de l'ode anacreontique et l'harmonie de la musique. II
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
Like Italian libretti, such a poem "divides into three recitatives alternat-
ing with as many airs; this necessitates a variety of metre in their verses
the lines of which are sometimes long, sometimes short."4
Then Rousseau looked for able composers to set his poetry, and
spontaneously turned to those of the Palais-Royal, notably Jean-Baptiste
Morin, Nicolas Bernier and Jean-Baptiste Stuck (Batistin). In around
17o6 these musicians published the first Livres de cantates franfaises ever
printed in the kingdom, and two of them (Morin and Stuck) naturally
dedicated theirs to their patron, the Duke of Orl6ans. In the "Avis"
opening his book, Morin claimed the honor of pioneering the new
genre and hinted that his cantatas had been written some time before 521
17o6 and were already circulating:
3 Anonymous Discours sur la poesie lyrique (1761) quoted after Dorival, La Cantate
franfaise, 13. Translations of quoted materials are mine, unless otherwise stated.
4 Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, "Preface" to his (Euvres quoted from J. Bachelier, Recueil
de cantates (The Hague: Alberts & van der Kloot, 1728; reprint ed. Geneva: Minkoff,
1992), "Preface" (no pagination). Translation from Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century French
Cantata, 2nd ed., pp. 17-18: "les [the poems] partager en trois Recits coupez par autant
d'Airs de mouvement; ce qui les [the Italians] oblige A diversifier la mesure de leur Stro-
phes dont les vers sont tant6t plus longs & tant6t plus courts."
5 Jean-Baptiste Morin, "Avis," in Cantates franfaises a une et deux voix, melees de sym-
phonies (Paris: Ballard, 17o6), p. [v]. Translation from Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century
French Cantata, 2nd ed., 47.
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
I For studies on Charles-Hubert Gervais's life and works, see my Ph.D. dissertation,
"The Church Music of Charles-Hubert Gervais (1671-1744), sous-maitre de musique at the
Chapelle Royale" (Duke University, 1994; UMI order no. 9510828); my edition of Ger-
vais's Superflumina Babilonis, Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, vol. 84
(Madison: A-R Editions, Inc., 1998); as well as my book Charles-Hubert Gervais. Un Musi-
cien au service du Regent et de Louis XV (Paris: Editions du CNRS, 2001).
12 L.T. de. [La Tour], "Dissertation sur la musique italienne et franCoise," Mercure de
France (November 1713), quoted after Pierre Bourdelot andJacques Bonnet, Histoire de la
musique et de ses effets, 2nd ed., 1 (Amsterdam: Le Cane, 1725; reprint ed. Graz: Akademi-
sche Druck u. Verlagsanstalt, 1966), 302: "il n'y en a point qui ne veuille faire son livre &
?tre burin&." By 1712, Bernier's books I-III, Stuck's books I-III, Morin's three books and
Andr6 Campra's first book were already issued.
13 Charles-Hubert Gervais, "Epistre," in Cantates franfoises avec et sans symphonies
(Paris: Ballard, 1712), [fol. 2]: "Personne ne connoit plus A fond que V.A.R. I'Art dontje
me suis m?le, & cette connoissance ne fait qu'une petite partie de celles qu'Elle possede:
Mais j'espere que v6tre bonte naturelle que j'ay tant de fois eprouv6e, me sauvera de vos
lumieres."
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
vais's 1712 book, and since the title page of Charles-Hubert's first book
bears the attribution "Monsieur Gervais," there is no serious doubt that
the author of Psichi burlesque is Charles-Hubert, i.e., the only "Monsieur
Gervais" of the period to perform conspicuous duties at court.'6 The
other possible candidate would be the obscure Barbeau de Gervais
whose only known work, a handwritten score dated 1710, is Action: bur-
lesque cantate. This composer, however, is far from having met the suc-
cess of Charles-Hubert, and the style of his Action lacks inspiration and
524
is void of comic effects.'7 Moreover, some of Barbeau's musical features
are never found in Charles-Hubert Gervais's output, and as a matter of
fact in Psichi burlesque: Barbeau's use of double stopping (in the second
violin part in order to imitate hunting horns; Example ia) is particu-
larly noteworthy,'8 but lengthy ritournelles (up to 28 measures) and awk-
wardnesses (like the one reproduced in the third measure of Ex. Ib)
must also be mentioned. Since these details are absent from the Roger
print, it can securely be ascertained that Barbeau de Gervais had noth-
ing to do with it. As for Laurent Gervais, he almost always appended to
his name the phrase "de Rouen" to distinguish himself from the Duke
14 Dorival, La Cantate franfaise, 83-84: "son livre appartient plut6t ai la toute pre-
miere periode de la cantate."
'5 [Charles-Hubert] Gervais, "Psiche burlesque," in Recueil d'airs strieux et ci boire de
diffirents auteurs ... Augmenti considerablement de diffirents airs manuscrits des plus habiles
maitres & des plus beaux airs des opira (Amsterdam: Estienne Roger, 1709), July issue, 181-
92 and August issue, 215-29. [Charles-Hubert] Gervais, '"Tircis," in idem, September is-
sue, 253-57 and October issue, 279-86. The volume is deposited at the Koninklijke Bib-
liotheek (The Hague) under the shelf number 4K 36-38. Acknowledgments are due to
Noam Krieger (Amsterdam) for providing me with photocopies of the Estienne Roger
publications.
16 Some musical similarities between Psichi burlesque and Charles-Hubert Gervais's
other works are listed in notes 24 and 25 below.
17 See Barbeau de Gervais, Action: burlesque cantate, F-Pn Vm7 4762. The score is in-
tended for a bass voice, two dessus de violon and continuo. For a brief description of the
work, see Vollen, The French Cantata, 19-20.
18 Double stops are made clear in the accompanying material bound with the score.
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
-re
B.c.
525
r Irl r. 'r ? CT
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
526
Psich" burlesque: A Comic Libretto
Only ten years after the death ofJean-Baptiste Lully,
the first genuine comedy in music-L'Europe galante by Andre Campra-
was staged at the Academie Royale de Musique with great success. In
1699, Campra went even further in the burlesque vein with Le Carnaval
de Venise, the first ballet a l'intrigue suivie ever composed on a comic li-
bretto. These two works, together with Henry Desmarest's Les Festes
galantes (1698), gave the stimulus to a new, light, and at time frivolous
dramatic genre which was going to flourish during the regency, and
whose most important fruits before Rameau's 1745 Platie are Le Carnaval
et la Folie (Destouches, 1703) and LesFestes de Thalie (Mouret, 1714).
Psiche burlesque is a part of this rich tradition of satire and comedy.
The author of the libretto on which Gervais worked has not yet been
identified, but it may have been written by one of those numerous men
of letters haunting the Palais-Royal. Interestingly, the theme of Psyche
seems to have come back into some sort of favor after the 1703 and
1713 successful revivals of Lully's Psyche at the Academie Royale de
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
Musique. To date, six cantatas based on the maiden's legend have been
located: one by Nicolas Bernier (Le triomphe de Psichi, second book, ca.
1703), one by Jean-Baptiste Morin (Psiche et ses sceurs, third book,
1712), one byJean-Baptiste Stuck (Psichi, fourth book, 1714), two by
Thomas-Louis Bourgeois (Psichi and L'Amour et Psichi, both published
in his second book, 1718), and an undated one by Franois Rebel
(L'Amour et Psichi, F-Pc D 12.822 (1)).21
All these works narrate (part of) the history of Psyche in a serious
mood: Psyche was a handsome maiden whose beauty aroused the jeal-
ousy of Venus. The latter condemned her to death. But Cupid, Venus's
own son who had fallen in love with Psyche, eloped with her to a beauti-
ful palace. There he used to rejoin her every night, and promised her
an eternal love on one condition: that she was not to look at his face.
One night, however, she came near Cupid with an oil lamp and saw his
face. The son of Venus woke and fled. After undergoing many hard-
ships, Psyche was reunited with Cupid and made immortal by Jupiter.
Such a myth does not quite match the humorous tone of Psichi bur-
lesque, the poem of which is reproduced in the Appendix below. The
opening recitative, wherein alexandrines and hexasyllables alternate, is
527
pompous and narrative, and seems to come from a tragedy: it is a gen-
uine theatrical ricit relating the events which led Psyche to her dreadful
rock awaiting the monster, and Cupid's stratagem to abduct her. The
following air, however, in which the maiden is casually referred to as
"the beauty" ("la belle"), makes us understand that her fate should not
be taken too seriously. Here, the short lines (hexameters and octosylla-
bles) give place to the final alexandrine (the longest line available:
"Dans un Palais charmant construit pour ses plaisirs") in order to put
forward the key philosophy of the entire cantata-"pleasures" ("plaisirs")
-and to depict Cupid's yearning for Psyche's favors. What a marked
contrast with the previous ricit where "the grandeur of the expressions
answer[ed] to the grandeur of the subject!"22 The next aria goes even
further in this easy manner, the heroine being presented as a "young
2 There are also two cantatilles, one by Louis Le Maire (1741) and another by
Pierre de La Garde (1758), as well as the poem "L'Amour et Psiche, Cantate" by "M. de
B***" printed in Mercure de France (July 1734), 1544-48 (no setting of this poem has
been found). The libretto of Bourgeois's Psychi was written by M1e Marie de Louvencourt;
see Manuel Couvreur, "Marie de Louvencourt, librettiste des cantates franCaises de Bour-
geois et de Clrambault," Revue belge de musicologie XLIV (199o), 25-40. Bernier's, Morin's,
Stuck's and Bourgeois's cantatas are available in David Tunley, ed., The Eighteenth-Century
French Cantata. A Seventeen-Volume Facsimile Set of the Most Widely Cultivated and Performed
Music in Early Eighteenth-Century France (New York, London: Garland Publishing, 1991),
vols. 4, 6, 13 and 14. (Note that the third entrie ofJean-Joseph Cassanda de Mondonville's
1758 ballet Les Festes de Paphos is also titled "L'Amour et Psych&.")
22 Bernard Lamy, La Rhitorique, ou l'art de parler, g3rd ed. (Paris: A. Pralard, 1688),
271: "la grandeur des expressions r6pond A la grandeur du sujet."
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
little lass" ('"jeune Fillette") ready to have fun with the first "handsome
lad" ("beau gar<;on") to arrive in order to pass the time. Here again, the
longest line of the air is the last one, thus emphasizing the (licentious?)
"conclusion" of the heroes' tOte-a-tite. The fourth number of the score
A "Musical Comedy"
To set to music such a burlesque libretto, Gervais
gave proof of humor and wit, and displayed a variety of musical touches
borrowed from the tragidie en musique and the ballet, as well as from the
air s6ieux and the air a boire. The work, meant for bas-dessus (mezzo-
soprano noted in Ci clef), obbligato instrument (very likely a violin,
given the required range and the writing of its part) and continuo, di-
vides into two ricitatifs and four airs, which are unevenly distributed:
23 See Pierre Abeille, Action, cantate burlesque, F-Pn Vm7 4761, 3, and Barbeau de
Gervais, Action: burlesque cantate, 3. The word "excrement" also appears in the poem.
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
24 "Beaux yeux, qui voulez dans mon ame," in Recueil d'airs sriyeux et d boire de differ-
ents auteurs pour l'annie 1699 (Paris: Ballard, August 1699), 148-49; "Petits oyseaux dont
les chants amoureux," in Recueil d'airs serieux et d boire de diffrents autheurs pour l'annie
1695 (Paris: Ballard, December 1695), 232-35. The melodic incipit of "Le moyen de se
deffendre" is also comparable to those of "Charmants Oyseaux" and "C'est vainement
que le depit eclatte" from Charles-Hubert's Tircis.
25 Some turns of phrase also evoke Gervais's duo d boire "0! qu'il est doux qu'il est
charmant," in Recueil d'airs serieux et d boire de diffirents auteurs pour l'annie 1710o (Paris: Bal-
lard, January 1710), 3-6 (see meas. 27-31, pp. 4-5 at "Ah! quelle gloire!").
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
F R .ik- -..
Le moy- en de se def-fen- dre con-tre le Dieu qui fait ai- mer.
Bassecontinue
2 7 6 # 6 6# 6 6 5 6 5 #
530
# 6 7 5 7 6 6 6 6 5 6 7
rj r
lui qui sait tout char- mer. Ah! Ah! qu'il est doux., de se ren - dre
# # # 5 9 8 7 6 6# 6 6 5
5# 5 4# 4 #
maximes") 26 and which "incurred the enmity of the clergy and the con-
servative professors of the Sorbonne."27 (This may be exactly the point
at which the Duke of Orl6ans and his artists were aiming, since Philippe
and Louis XIV's morganatic wife could not bear each other.) A brief
comparison between "Le moyen de se deffendre" and Sangaride's air
"Quand le peril est agr6able" (Atys, I, 3) will strengthen this position.
The poems are similar in mood:
26 See Boileau, Satire X (1692): "ces lieux communs de Morales lubriques," and
Madeleine Garros, "Mme de Maintenon et la musique," Revue de musicologie, "serie spe-
ciale," 1 (January 1943), 8-17, at o10.
27 James R. Anthony, French Baroque Music from Beaujoyeulx to Rameau. Revised and
Expanded Edition (Portland: Amadeus Press, 1997), 114-
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
Beaux yeux, qui vou- lez dans mon a- me Fai-re nais- tre de
Basse continue 6# 6 6 # 6 6 6
6 6#
531
Parts: I II da capo I
Sections: rit. A rit. A' rit. B A' rit. B' A rit. A' rit.
Meas.: 1-9 9-14 14-16 16-21 21-24 24-32 32-39 39-42 42-50 50-55 55-57 57-62 62-66
Tonalities: b(b =b-DD- b b -f# b
B minor; D = D major; rit. = ritornello)
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
EXAMPLE 2c. Jean-Baptiste Lully, "Quand le peril est agreable" (I, 3),
Atys (Paris: Ballard, 1689), pp. 58-59-
Sangaride
B.c.
r, K rF K f
en de s'en al - lar - mer?
532 There is no contrast of any sort between the parts, except that part
I remains in the home key (B minor), whereas part II touches two re-
lated ones (D major and F-sharp minor) and concludes on the domi-
nant of B minor in order to prepare the return of part I. The lack of
dramatic contrasts is typically French, but presenting a material (A) in
the main key (meas. 9-14), restating it in the relative (D major; meas.
32-37) and then recapitulating it back in the home key is an Italian
gesture influenced by the trio sonata. The tight exchanges of motifs be-
tween the dessus and the violin, the octave falls of the opening motif
(meas. 1 and 9 in Example 3) as well as the numerous dissonances may
also be borrowed from Italian models, but the charm and the declama-
tory rhythms of the vocal phrases cannot conceal their French origins.
What an ingenious way to oppose Cupid's frantic behavior toward maid-
ens and his quest of pleasures (the extravagance of the Italian manner)
to Psyche's naivete (the delicacy of the French style)! Therefore, not
only is "Tendres coeurs qu'Amour favorise" the best testimony of the
go^its r'unis found in Psichi burlesque, and the most disconcerting form
of the entire work, but it also remarkably depicts young lovers in chase
of new mates, and invites them insistently to look for new flirtations: the
phrases "Tendres coeurs qu'Amour favorise" and "Et le jeu n'en vaut
plus rien" are repeated no fewer than eight times!
"Ce Dieu plein de desirs" is more grave than the aforementioned
air, and contrasts sharply with its preceding recitative. The (apparent)
refinement of its vocal line and the loose dialogue between the voice
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
A-FLFI
Ten-dres ceurs qu'A-mour fa- vo- ri - se, De ce -cy sou- ve- nez vous
I.
Basse continue 7 6
bien, Ten - dres coeurs qu'Amour fa- vo - ri - se, De ce - cy sou - ve- nez vous
533
7 6 # 6# 6 7 5 5# 5
# 3
t I ,
# 6 # #
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
28 The falling seventh d#-e at the violin's cadence, meas. 18-19 (beginning of Ex.
4), sounds quite Italian.
29 Andre Campra, L'Europe galante (Paris: Ballard, 1697), "La France. Premiere en-
tree," sc. 5, 37-43. See also Georgie Durosoir, "Le Recitatif depays6," Cahiers d'histoire cul-
turelleVI (1999), 67-78, at 73.
30 Campra, L'Europe galante, "La France. Premiere entree," sc. 4, 34-35.
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
# # 4# 6 6#
Basse continue 2
535
f * lJ I i II
# 6
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
A4 LZ P I w I
y F rr I
La jeu- ne Fil- let- te, Se trou-vant seu-
Basse 6 6# 6 5 46564 5
continue #
let - te A- vec Cu- pi- don Qui lui pa- rut beau gar- gon.
536
6 # 7 6 # #
5 4#
31 Once again, Gervais may have had in mind the above-mentioned monologue of
Doris in L'Europe galante.
32 For instance, the same means are employed to emphasize "fatal moment" and
"rocher affreux."
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
La char- man -te Psi-ch6 sur un Ro-cher af-freux At-ten- doit en tremblant le Mon stre fu-ri-
Basse continue
eux, Dont I'oracle vouloit qu'elle fCt lavic -ti-me; Sa beau-td plai soit plus Que cel le de Ve - nus,
,, 3
0 Mo
33 Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata, 2nd ed., 165. Similarly Philippe
Courbois's setting of Dom Quichotte does not add much to the words, and the only gen-
uine comic page of this cantata is the final air "Mardi faut il pour une Ingrate." (Dorival,
La Cantate franfaise, 76-77, provides an interesting analysis of the piece.) Courbois's
score is reprinted in Tunley, ed., The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata. A Seventeen-Volume
Facsimile Set of the Most Widely Cultivated and Performed Music in Early Eighteenth-Century
France, vol. 14. Similar conclusions can be drawn from Pierre Abeille's and Barbeau de
Gervais's settings of Action, cantate burlesque.
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
6 5
Basse continue
ment, Que tout ce fit au nom de I'Hy -me -nd-e, Mais ii eOt mieux va-lu le fai -re pour I'a- mant
# 6 6 #
4#
2
538
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
of the cantate comique.34 (The works which fall into this small category are
listed in Table 1.)
I have suggested elsewhere that some libretti of the 1712 Livre de
cantates may have been chosen by the Duke of Orleans himself:35 he
may also have commissioned Psiche burlesque to ridicule Lully's Psyche,
i.e., a veiled way to attack the lavish and successful spectacle Louis XIV's
best artists performed during the king's heyday,36 and a means of keep-
ing aloof from the Versailles Court.37 It may even be suggested that the
second recitative-in which Psyche gives up her virtue before entering
matrimony-makes a reproachful allusion to those of Louis XIV's ille-
gitimate children (notably the Duke of Maine) who were in position to
contest the Duke's right to rule the kingdom during the forthcoming
regency. (Needless to say that Philippe and his life-long friend Saint-
Simon hated these rivals born out of the royal wedlock.) Psyche's myth
indeed had long been understood as the destiny of the fallen soul and
its everlasting union with Divine love: it may thus be read as a metaphor
of Louis XIV's sexual wanderings before he found genuine love-the
"divine flame," so to speak-with the bigoted Madame de Maintenon.
It may also be regarded as an image of the young Louis XIV-Cupid
abducting his numerous mistress-Psyches to his beautiful palace of Ver- 539
sailles. It is well known that the quest of Love and of Wisdom is one of
the symbolic representations found in the gardens of Versailles; the
labyrinth in particular was devoted to Cupid by king's order, as Charles
34 David Tunley has already pointed out that "A vein of humour, of course, runs
through many a French cantata-for example, Clerambault's L'Amour piqui par une abeille
and Bernier's Le caffr and Lesforges de Lemnos-but such works lack an essential ingredient
of the comic cantata, that is, the burlesque," a paramount element in Gervais's PsichU
burlesque. See Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata, 2nd ed., 162-63. Bernier's and
Clerambault's cantatas are also available in Tunley, ed., The Eighteenth-Century French Can-
tata. A Seventeen-Volume Facsimile Set of the Most Widely Cultivated and Performed Music in Early
Eighteenth-Century France, vols. 6, 7 and 9.
35 See my book, Charles-Hubert Gervais, 82.
36 The original version of Lully's PsychU, a trag~die-ballet whose libretto is due to
Moliere, Pierre Corneille and Philippe Quinault, was premiered in the Tuileries Palace
on 17 January 1671. The second version, a tragidie en musique on a libretto revised by
Thomas Corneille and Fontenelle, was first performed at the Academie Royale de Musique
on 19 April 1678. The poem of Lully's Psyche is printed in Pierre Corneille, (Euvres com-
pletes, ed. Georges Couton, Biblioth&que de la Pleiade, 3 (Paris: Gallimard, 1980-87),
1081-151.
37 Even though no direct reference to Lully's 1671 libretto can positively be dis-
closed, some lines and/or themes of PsichU burlesque may be related to Quinault's,
Moliere's and Corneille's poem: "Lui mime avoit dict6 l'oracle" refers directly to
Corneille's line "Lui-mime a dicte cet oracle" (III, 3): "Le moyen de se deffendre/contre
le Dieu qui fait aimer" echoes "Pouvais-je n'aimer pas le Dieu qui fait aimer" (IV, 5); the
maxim of Gervais's final aria (no. 6) takes the opposite view of Psyche's last monologue
(V, 4: "Pauvres amants! Leur amour dure encore,/Tous morts qu'ils sont, l'un et l'autre
m'adore").
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
TABLE 1
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
was Philippe's unique official representative; he was able to act with the
authority of his patron without being worried. Thus Psiche burlesque-
whose humorous and caricaturical character has nothing in common
with the seriousness ofJean-Baptiste Morin's Psiche et ses swurs, Thomas-
43 Among the most recent studies, see Sabatier, Versailles ou la figure du roi; Nerau-
dau, L'Olympe du Roi-Soleil; Nicole Ferrier-Caveriviere, LImage de Louis XIV dans la littirature
francaise de 166o a 1715 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1981); and Peter Burke,
The Fabrication of Louis XIV (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1992). In the
field of the music composed during the regency, see Wilfrid Mellers, Franfois Couperin
and the French Classical Tradition. New version (London, Boston: Faber and Faber, 1987).
44 See Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Madame de Sevigne, Correspondance, ed. Roger
Duchene, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, 2 (Paris: Gallimard, 1972-78), passim.
45 Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon, Correspondance, ed. Jean Orcibal, 10o
(Geneva: Droz, 1987-92): 256-59; FranCois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon, (Euvres,
ed. Jacques Lebrun, Bibliothique de la Pl6iade, 2 (Paris: Gallimard, 1983-97), 1241-42:
"avait pour projet d'attaquer toutes les fautes que les rois et leurs agents pouvaient com-
mettre en general, mais de louer le plus possible tout ce qui etait sage dans leur con-
duite."
46 See the report published in Mercure galant (June 1703), 350-54 and Montagnier,
Un Mecene-musicien, 58-59: "la Compagnie a este divertie par une excellente Musique."
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
Conclusion
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY
APPENDIX
i. R&citatif
2. Air
544
3. Air
Lajeune Fillette,
Se trouvant seulette
Avec Cupidon
Qui lui parut beau gargon.
Ne pouvant mieux faire,
Ne resista guere,
Et l'on en vint bient6t 'a la conclusion.
4. Air
Le moyen de se deffendre
Contre le Dieu qui fait aimer.
Ah! Qu'il est doux de se rendre
A celui qui sait tout charmer.
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER
5. Recitatif
6. Air
545
This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms